Jewish researcher shares Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying Hepatitis C virus
The October 5 announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prize in medicine. Image by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/Getty Images
(JTA) — The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three scientists who identified the hepatitis C virus.
The prize was awarded Monday to Harvey Alter of the National Institutes of Health, Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta, and Charles Rice of Rockefeller University.
“The Nobel Laureates’ discovery of Hepatitis C virus is a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases. Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health,” the Nobel committee said in announcing the prize.
Alter, 85, who is Jewish, was born in New York and attended medical school at the University of Rochester. Early in his career he worked with the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Baruch Blumberg, who identified the hepatitis B virus.
In 2000, he received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C.
Houghton isolated the genetic sequence of the new hepatitis C virus while working at Chiron Corporation in the 1980s. Rice showed that hepatitis C virus alone could cause hepatitis.
The post Jewish researcher shares Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying hepatitis C virus appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
